At the age of 28, Hassan Al Sayegh has already finished a doctorate, worked as a consultant and started his own business.Having grown up in Dubai, studying at the British-curriculum Rashid School for Boys,Ray Ban Vintage Sunglasses, he relocated to England moving from an undergraduate degree to a postgraduate degree in chemical engineering at the University of Nottingham. During this time, I had a really cool opportunity to do a research PhD researching what was basically a renewable energy project, creating biodiesel from forestry wastes.
I pushed it from lab scale to pilot scale, and they built a plant in Norway. It took three years to research and a year to write and Al Sayegh realised that he enjoyed the commercial side of the project the most.He then completed an internship with the Boston Consultancy Group as a management consultant, before joining the company full-time focusing on projects in Saudi Arabia. It was a brilliant time there, because there was a very, very steep learning curve; especially for me, having a very technical engineering background, being surrounded by MBA graduates.
So many skills, he says, were directly applicable to management consulting the whole aspect of breaking down such a big problem into little chunks and then solving them in a topical manner, in a very logical way. Al Sayegh later decided to start an e-commerce business, Mena360, with a former colleague, Idriss Al Rifai. I saw the big gap between the e-commerce experience in the UK, where I lived for eight years, and here in the UAE. When you buy stuff online in the UK, it s guaranteed you ll get it next day; here, you buy something online and you don t even know if you re going to get it.
For the past month-and-a-half, I ve taken myself out of the picture, so it s all growing by itself now which is really satisfying. The plan now is to take a couple of months off, possibly do some travelling and just relax for a bit. But it s been about a month now and I ve already gotten bored. What are the most important things that you ve learnt at each of your three key life stages?Doing the PhD taught me perseverance. From the consulting, I would say how to position information correctly to get clients or your peers on board with your ideas. From the start-up experience, I would say the soft skills I learnt.
Have you had a consistent philosophy throughout your life?I look up to my brother he s my role model, and he always tells me: There s no growth in comfort. Who is your biggest inspiration?All my siblings have been very successful in their professional careers or whatever they choose to do and it s all thanks to my mum.Do you travel much?I have done a lot of travelling in the past every summer my parents used to take us on a tour of some part of the world. It s a very important aspect of someone s growth as well: travelling, experiencing other cultures, being comfortable with other cultures.
What renewable-energy projects are you especially interested in?The Government here, especially in Abu Dhabi, has done a great job building up Masdar as a renewable-energy centre of the world.Have you had time for any hobbies at all?I have a dog called Ralph and I love spending time with him. During my downtime at the weekends, I spend a lot of time taking him for walks it s one of my favourite things to do.
Are you into sports?I m a massive Chelsea fan; I watch every single Chelsea game. Whatever I m doing gets dropped for that sacred one-hour-and-a-half of football every Saturday.What films do you like?I go through phases. I m into Quentin Tarantino movies; they re fantastic, but he hasn t done a proper Tarantino movie in ages.Do you have a favourite actor?It s got to be Robert Downey Jr.How did you spend your Eid?
Last year I was in Sri Lanka, so this Eid I really wanted to spend time with my extended family here in Dubai.Follow us Follow us on for discussions, entertainment, reviews, wellness and news.